1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automatic medicament dispensing machines. More particularly, the invention relates to a medicament dispensing machine having a plurality of independent medicament counting units.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Automatic medicament dispensing machines such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,919 (the ""919 patent) more quickly and accurately dispense medicaments such as prescription drugs. The machine disclosed in the ""919 patent includes a cabinet, a plurality of medicament dispensing cells positioned in the cabinet for holding and dispensing medicaments, and a transporter/manipulator mechanism that moves in the enclosure for positioning a vial adjacent a selected one of the medicament dispensing cells for receipt of medicament therefrom. Once a vial has been filled, the transporter/manipulator places the filled vial on a conveyor for labeling and subsequent inspection by a pharmacist or other operator.
While the automatic medicament dispensing machine disclosed in the ""919 patent dramatically increases the accuracy and speed at which medicaments are dispensed, its overall speed or throughput is limited by the time required to transfer medicaments from a cell to a vial. This is because the transporter/manipulator includes both the mechanism that transfers medicaments from a cell to a vial and the mechanism that counts the medicaments as they are being transferred. Therefore, the transporter cannot be used to transport other vials to a dispensing cell until a first vial has been filled and transported out of the machine, but instead must remain idle during medicament transfer and counting. Because medicaments must be transferred from a dispensing cell to a vial somewhat slowly to ensure an accurate count, this idle time can be a significant percentage of the total time required to dispense a filled vial of medicaments.
The present invention solves the above-described problems and provides a distinct advance in the art of automatic medicament dispensing machines. More particularly, the invention provides an automatic medicament dispensing machine that does not have to remain idle while medicaments are transferred to a vial and counted and that therefore can dispense medicaments at a much faster rate.
The automatic medicament dispensing machine of the present invention broadly includes a cabinet; a plurality of medicament dispensing cells arranged in the cabinet for holding and dispensing medicaments; a plurality of medicament counting units; and a transporter for transporting the counting units to the cells for filling vials held by the counting units. In accordance with one important aspect of the invention, each counting unit includes a vial gripper for holding a vial and a transfer mechanism for transferring medicaments from one of the medicament dispensing cells to the vial The transporter and counting units are configured so that the transporter can: (1) couple with and transport a first counting unit to one of the dispensing cells and then detach from the first counting unit to permit it to fill its vial with medicaments from the dispensing cell; and then (2) couple with and transport second and subsequent counting units to other dispensing cells for filling their vials with medicaments. Because each counting unit includes mechanisms for transferring and counting medicaments from a cell to a vial, the transporter does not have to perform these functions. This permits the transporter to pick up and transport counting units and their vials to dispensing cells while previously placed counting units fill their vials with medicaments. Then, when the counting units are finished filling their vials with medicaments, the transporter can individually remove the counting units from their cells and transport the filled vials out of the machine.
These and other important aspects of the present invention are described more fully in the detailed description below.